Chapter 91
Facing Soren, freshly broken through to Lower-Tier Demon Ancestor, Neal had lost his nerve completely.
He had to fold, even the Blood Demon Ancestor, a genuine Lower-Tier Demon Ancestor, hadn’t beaten Soren when Soren was only Upper-Tier Demon Emperor.
Now that Soren had advanced to Lower-Tier Demon Ancestor too, who in the world could match him?
Neal was terrified that a single no would get him killed on the spot, he swallowed his pride and begged through mental transmission, voice dripping with submission.
The only reason he kept it private was to salvage one last shred of dignity before his people.
"Whatever treasures or items you want, I’ll give them all to you!"
"I can help you control the whole Moonveil Human Domain! They all listen to my commands!"
"Just don’t kill me! Please, leave me a little face in front of the others! Behind closed doors, I’m willing to serve you as my Master!"
Soren listened, and the words sounded suspiciously familiar, the exact rhetoric Grant had used.
As expected of father and son.
"Are you worthy?"
He didn’t even need the Strategy Encyclopedia for this one.
An opportunistic fence-sitter just like his father, born with a treacherous bone to betray his masters on top of it.
He slowly raised his hand, ready to snap his fingers and crush him.
Neal was scared out of his wits, he abandoned all pretense and shrieked for everyone to hear.
"Ancestor Soren, don’t kill me! I’m willing to obey your every command! I don’t care about face or dignity anymore! I only beg you to spare my life!"
The words hit every human cultivator like steel needles through the skull.
The crowd froze, staring at Neal with bewildered eyes, they couldn’t believe what they were hearing.
A Human Emperor, begging a demon fiend for mercy.
A monumental humiliation.
The crowd couldn’t hold it in, faces crimson, eyes bloodshot, expressions twisted.
"Great Emperor Neal, you cannot!"
"Doing this damages the destiny and reputation of our human race!"
"Born an Emperor, even if reading the situation is part of one’s temperament, it should never sink to groveling before a murderous demon!"
"Stand up, Great Emperor Neal! You represent our domain’s face! We would rather die standing than live kneeling!"
Cold sweat broke across Neal’s forehead.
Shut up, you fucking idiots, I might have actually survived, and you’re yelling like this, backing me into an impossible corner.
Neal knew today was an utter disgrace, but who could have predicted Soren would break through to the Ancestor Realm mid-battle?
And scare off the Ancestor Tribulation with a single word, proving his foundation didn’t even need the lightning baptism? That kind of existence could crush him like a bug with a casual wave.
Could he afford not to submit? Refusing meant certain death.
Neal’s conviction was rock-solid.
As long as he survived, he’d do anything, abandoning everything didn’t matter. The Moonveil Human Domain, and every cultivator in it, included.
Soren was amused by his terror, and by the crowd’s curses.
"Humans are quite interesting, some have bones hard as iron, others have bones soft as pastry."
Neal wasn’t angry in the slightest, he plastered on a fawning smile instead, he knew Soren was calling him spineless.
Facing death, all he knew how to do was beg, but what did that matter? Was dignity more important than his life?
His voice echoed across the sky. "Ancestor Soren is absolutely right, I am spineless."
"This humble one is the number one soft-boned coward in the Moonveil Human Domain."
Pfft.
Within the crowd, several Human Venerables coughed up blood and collapsed, twitching before going still.
Several Lower-Tier Human Emperors trembled with cold rage, wrists shaking as they pointed at Neal.
"We entrusted our lives to you, resolved to fight this demon to the end! For you to kneel and lick the demon’s boots, how can you face us?"
Neal bellowed back. "Shut your mouths! A wise man submits to circumstance!"
"I am an Upper-Tier Human Emperor of the Moonveil Human Domain! I have the authority to decide my own staying or leaving, and yours as well!"
The crowd shook with fury, coughing blood repeatedly. "Decide our staying or leaving? Bah! You... you... you! You’re unworthy of being a Great Emperor of our human race!"
Soren wore a half-smile. "They don’t seem very convinced?"
"Not convinced? Kill them, and let’s see if they’re convinced then!" Neal’s tone was humble toward Soren, ruthless toward his own people.
The crowd staggered back in unison, angrier now, and genuinely terrified.
This bastard was actually proposing to Soren that they be slaughtered, was this still a Human Emperor? He was a living brute beast.
"Good idea."
The faint smile on Soren’s face looked like a devil’s.
Neal seized it like a lifeline, he cupped his hands toward Soren, gripped the halberd, and turned to cast a cold, venomous gaze down at the crowd.
"Your dying for my sake can be considered meaningful."
The crowd’s blood boiled over.
"We gave you our spiritual energy and souls, and this is how you betray us? Discarding us like trash? Are you even human?"
Teeth gnashing, they shifted tactics and turned to Soren. "Ancestor Soren, you cannot trust him! This person’s a traitor to his bones, he’ll never be loyal to anything!"
"Kill him! Yes, kill Neal!"
Hearing the tide turn, Neal grew nervous. "Bullshit! In this life I’ve resolved to serve Ancestor Soren as my master!"
"Make Ancestor Soren unhappy, and I’ll send every one of you to hell! When you reincarnate as humans next life, remember well, never offend people you shouldn’t offend!"
Neal’s smug, treacherous expression, a petty villain drunk on borrowed power, infuriated another batch of cultivators to death on the spot.
The survivors staggered, barely keeping their footing.
They’d already handed over their spiritual energy and most of their soul power.
All they could do was wag their tongues, Neal could slaughter them however he pleased.
Lysara and Basil watched without a word, sighing inwardly.
This man had displayed the concept of shamelessness to absolute perfection, moments ago he’d told Soren not to be born a demon next life, vowed to kill him on sight, his tune changed unimaginably fast.
Neal swung the Dragon-Piercing Halberd, unleashing a surge of berserk power.
In an instant every human cultivator present died, not even a scream, raging flames swept the ground, spreading wild, refusing to rest until everything burned to ash.